


Unity

by WindwiseWords



Series: Xenogen City [20]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Adorable, Dancing, Developing Friendships, Father-Son Relationship, Guardian-Ward Relationship, Inspired by Music, Music
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-25
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-27 00:10:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8379835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindwiseWords/pseuds/WindwiseWords
Summary: Soundwave meets Blaster at the park, and the meeting goes quite well for everyone involved.





	

Soundwave stared at the note left on his datapad. The usual reports, an occasional friendly note from Red Alert that he hoped his sudden disappearance wasn’t detracting from their work productivity. And the fifth one in the box, an invite from Blaster to meet him at a human park.

Two problems arose, one more easily solved that the next. One, how to get to the mainland. Many Decepticons were flyers and he could always request to ride with Titan while he shipped cargo in and out. The big friendly carrier-class easily hauled more than Soundwave plus freight containers, and never turned down a request unless he absolutely had to.

The second problem came from Soundwave’s more personal files. He felt guilty about being near humans, about what he did to their world, and staying to mooch off them as they would say. The angry media campaigns against them he viewed every night after the cassettes fell into recharge, only sharing with Ravage what he learned. The feline seemed uninterested, or at least apathetic about it.

Soundwave opened up the note and read it in full. The cassettes Blaster cared and guarded signed the bottom as well, stating they would bring some music and that Soundwave should too.

Frenzy and Rumble came in with a small tray of goodies, no doubt stolen off Red Alert’s desk. Red Alert took off for psychological reasons, but never failed to come in to leave treats for the little ones. Soundwave considered him a friend, and Inferno at least an acquaintance.

Could he ever get to that level of trust and security with Blaster, his mortal enemy? Soundwave clicked the reply tab and tapped away, a new desire to make nice. If only for the sake of the ‘kids,’ as Blaster said a few days ago. With a check for mistakes, Soundwave tapped ‘send’ with finality. He had to make this work. A treat appeared in his line of sight and Soundwave looked up to see Frenzy sitting on his desk. “Treat: Appreciated.” And turning away from the glass doors he slipped his mask away to enjoy a rare sweet. He needed it.

 

Blaster stood at the edge of the pond, watching Raindance throw bread at the ducks. It was a peaceful park that few came to, but that made it better for them. More room for running and playing without worrying about fragile humans. Nearby, Flip Sides was grappling with Stripes. Blaster reached down and gently pulled them apart. “Watch the fangs, tiger.” Stripes chuffed air through his vents and nodded, tackling back into Flip Sides with less biting involved.

Checking his internal chronometer, then a nearby clock on a pole, Blaster found Soundwave only had a few moments before he was late. Weirdly, Blaster surprised himself by becoming nervous that something happened to Soundwave on the way to the park, but he could always com Blaster should he run into trouble.

Just as the clock ticked over to one in the afternoon, the sound of heavy steps came up the sidewalk and toward them. Soundwave already let his cassettes out, and watched as Ravage bolted over to Stripes. The two circled each other before nudging foreheads.

“Aww. Glad to have someone like yourselves aren’t you? Hey ‘wave! How are you?” Blaster smiled at Rumble and Frenzy, who nervously hid against Soundwave’s leg. His own two remaining cassettes did the same, tucking against Blaster’s leg close.

“Soundwave: is pleased you contacted. Cassettes: needed fresh air. Consumed sweets, require energy burn off.” A slight incline of Soundwave’s head, and he awkwardly waved at the two little tapes clinging to Blaster’s leg. “Statement: Cassettes are very…” He thought of a word that fit. “Healthy.” He decided on, looking back up to see if that was the correct thing to say.

“They just got a proper checkup yesterday. I guess hanging out on a mountaintop didn’t rust us out.” Blaster laughed and nodded to Rumble and Frenzy. “Looks like your little guys are doing well too.”

Flip Sides bravely peaked out, nobody moving to attack the other, and offered Frenzy a hand. “…Hi.” He mumbled shyly, nervous that Frenzy wouldn’t accept his offer to shake. But with a small nudge of encouragement from Rumble, Frenzy took his hand and smiled.

“Soundwave says you guys like music. We brought some downloads.” Rumble nodded and took out a box from his subspace, setting it down. A music player, designed for them by Soundwave.

Raindance finally worked up the courage to come over and stared in awe. “That’s so cool! And it’s so small. Is it light? Can I hold it?”

“Sure. It’s pretty durable too. We fight a lot so anything we get has to be.” Frenzy put the cube in Raindance’s hands and watched the little flyer roll it over, looking at the controls.

Blaster waved Soundwave over to a grassy hill near the pond, where they could sit and watch the six cassettes play. Soundwave watched the tension ease out into more playful nature and soon they acted like the real fights between them never happened. Like it was all play fighting.

“Soundwave: did not expect this to go so smoothly.”

“I read somewhere the younger the bot the more they recover. If that recovery is facilitated.” Blaster pulled his datapad out and offered to show him the documents Rung gave him to read while stationed up in far off mountains.

Soundwave took it and scanned it faster than Optimus Prime through a good war novel. “Soundwave: agrees with methods. Rung: is a good psychoanalyst. Suggestion: music?” Soundwave remembered from spying on the bot that hardly an hour passed without music playing in his quarters. Any kind, any medium, be it radio or off the web.

Blaster’s eyes lit up with such a pure-sparked joy that Soundwave’s spark lightened as well. “I got some stuff from Jazz that I thought we could listen to. It’s probably new to us both. I figured that was fair.” Blaster brought a simple human-made laptop out from his subspace. “Best place to find music is the humans’ YouTube thing. It’s all free for the most part, and you can make great playlists.”

Soundwave knew of YouTube, but other than using it to track suspected cases of Decepticon rogue activity, he never thought it all that useful or interesting. As he started to tap keys with a single digit the machine booted up much slower than anything Cybertronian made, but Blaster kept his patience. Plugging in some small speakers he set the volume to near max and clicked play.

It was a melodic sound with good beat and even rhythm. Instantly the cassettes were drawn to the noise, and Raindance made his namesake, shaking it with all he had to the beat.

“Query: song name and author?” Soundwave said, noticing his foot tapped against the grass involuntarily. Soundwave danced before, rarely, but sound and beat moved through him. It agreed with him, like a fine enjex.

“Some human that goes by ‘TheFatRat.’ Song’s called ‘Unity’ and believe me there is a lot more. Each one’s different from the last. Jazzy recommended it.” Blaster already stood up, tapping a foot and twitching a bit as if trying to restrain himself from dancing. Blaster didn’t want to make a fool of himself in front of his new friend.

Soundwave stood up with him, foot still tapping away. “Soundwave: would like to dance. Soundwave: not sure how to dance to… TheFatRat’s music.” He offered a hand to Blaster. “Please assist in demonstrating.”

Blaster took his hand and pulled Soundwave with such enthusiasm the cassettes all stopped to see if there was going to be a fight before Blaster began to dance wildly, moving Soundwave with him. The spymaster seemed unsure.

“Just move with it, ‘wave! Like a data stream, but through your body instead of your processor.” Like a data stream? This seemed much too jerky and awkward, but the pattern in Blaster’s movements began to reveal itself if Soundwave focused hard.

Blaster let go as the other cassette guardian moved on his own accord, finding his own beat and moves with each passing note of the song. A few minutes of bliss, where they all related together with sound.

As the song faded, it took them a minute to stop, moving to their own beats together. The cassettes giggled and finally poked their guardians, who startled and looked at each other before Blaster broke out laughing. “I guess we got carried away.”

“Affirmative. Soundwave: apologizes.”

“Oh don’t worry about it. I’m just glad I found someone who likes to dance as much as I do. I can even get on Jazz’s nerves.” Blaster smiled and crouched down. “I’m gonna getchya!” He growled playfully, his three cassettes squealing and running away as he chased after them.

Soundwave watched them with amusement, and coiled tendrils around his own cassettes. Soundwave lifted them and rested them all in his arms. Decepticons did not cuddle, but Soundwave would hold his cassettes with care and warmth only they could see in his posture.

Blaster gathered up his cassettes and came over to stand with Soundwave. “I guess the little guys tuckered out. If you want we can go back to my place and let them rest, get some energon and just… Talk?” Soundwave stayed still and quiet for a moment, Blaster wondering if he’d reject the offer.

“Offer: accepted. Titan: flies freight back in fifteen minutes.”

“Good idea ‘wave.” Blaster opened up his chest pocket and lazily the cassettes folded up and tucked inside. Soundwave allowed his own to do the same, the little guys waving at each other before disappearing into their guardian’s chest. As the mechs walked back toward the port where Titan ran freight to-and-from Xenogen, there was a comfortable silence. Soundwave talked with his posture, Blaster noticed, and the comfortable lax tension in his shoulders told him everything he needed to know about where they stood. Soundwave would trust Blaster, and Blaster would give Soundwave the benefit of the doubt and start over a rivalry to be this odd friendship.


End file.
